No amendments to the Unlawful Activities Prevention Amendment (UAPA) Act are presently under consideration, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai told Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
The minister was responding to questions from members on whether the Government planned to amend the existing Act in the light of recent evidence about a large number of acquittals and for preventing the harassment of innocent people in the wake of misuse of UAPA.
In a written reply to the Lower House, the minister said, "There are adequate constitutional, institutional and statutory safeguards including inbuilt safeguards in the UAPA itself, to prevent the misuse of law. The UAPA has been amended in the past keeping in view the requirement. Presently, no amendments in the UAPA are under consideration."
Over a question by the Opposition on whether there has been any custodial deaths reported of the persons during their stay in custody under this law, Rai stated, "The information regarding custodial deaths of the persons in custody under the UAPA is not maintained by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)."
In the monsoon session of the Parliament earlier this year, the Union Home Minster had said that as per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data a total of 1,948 persons were arrested and 34 were convicted under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in 2019.
( With inputs from ANI )
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